‘Clumsy Bitch.’ Struggling with her defeated umbrella, Anita had rounded the corner of Quay Street and collided with a similarly encumbered commuter, his face hardened into a discontent not solely the result of this encounter. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Sorry I couldn’t…’ she offered to his retreating raincoat. Stooping, she retrieved her bag from the […]

‘Mum! David’s kicked the ball into the tulips!’ Spring 1965. I am seven. And a bit of a snitch. Upstairs, a curtain is scraped back and Mum appears, wagging finger completely at odds with the twinkle in her eyes. David gets away with murder now. Which is very annoying to my seven-year-old self. But just […]

It wasn’t until she found the arm on the kitchen table, wrapped in a length of muslin up to the wrist, the hand exposed and the index finger pointing at her usual seat at the kitchen table, that Lucy started to have suspicions. Joe came down for breakfast five minutes later, groggy with sleep and […]

The rain ran down Dave’s nose slowly and then dripped, noiselessly, on to the mud he was moving about on. Sometimes the rain also went down his back, somehow having got inside the inadequate anorak he was wearing. And it also crept deviously into his shoes; starting at the toe, it felt like it was […]

The woman in the house opposite sits in her window, net curtains falling in an arch around her. She stares into the deserted road as though watching a switched-off TV waiting for a programme to begin. At regular intervals she wanders off, returning with a sandwich or a cup and saucer, and drinks with her […]

Josephine Galvin is a late starter in the world of writing. She has had varied jobs including travel, education and proof reading – none of which were very lucrative, but which have provided rich material for fiction. She has three delightful adult children, two of whom still live at home in Denton, Manchester. She only […]

Elaine Miles began writing short stories in 2006, when a back injury forced her to lie down and do nothing for six weeks. Unable to do much more than lift a pen, she thought she’d give writing a go, and sent a short story off to a writing competition, never dreaming for a minute that […]

Susan Davenport was brought up mainly in Canada. After studying English and Art History at Nottingham University, she spent many years teaching in further and higher education, both in the UK and abroad, as well as working with a refugee unit within a university. Since retiring she has been writing and making clay sculptures. She […]

Dennis Hamley is the author of The Second Person From Porlock, coming this November. Dennis grew up in Kent and Buckinghamshire. After completing his National Service in the RAF, he read English at Jesus College, Cambridge and then pursued postgraduate studies at Bristol, Manchester and Leicester, where he earned a PhD. After a career in […]

Dan Corry runs NPC, a charity that seeks to improve the impact of the charity sector via think tank work and consultancy. He is an economist by profession and after working in the civil service and in think tanks, was a special adviser during most of the Labour government 1997-2010. Dan wrote many short stories […]